Hey been taking my first few video clips with the DMC-ZS3 and noticed that the AVCHD-Lite video takes up less space then the motion JPEG, but my video editor does not let me edits AVCHD-Lite (.mts) files. I also noticed that the AVCHD-lite video appears choppy when playing it back.

What editors have you guys found that works with AVCHD-lite and do you folks find the video is choppy? It seems very choppy when you have background motion or movement such as cars or people walking. Kinda like it skips plays every other frame effect.

I just went round on this on another forum. As far as I know, the only 3rd party apps that currently support the 720p AVCHD-Lite (as opposed to the full 1080p AVCHD) are Sony Vegas Pro 9 and Adobe Premiere CS4 (v4.1).

Voltaic (and I would assume most other ffmpeg based software, like HandBrake) currently suffer from a synch issue which is the result of a mismatch between the file header (wrapper) and the actual video stream. (The file header states that the frame rate is 59.94, twice the standard frame rate of 29.97, which results in converted video being twice as long as the audio.)

Best bet would probably be to wait for the more affordable Nero and/or Pinnacle to issue patches/updates to their software. And in the meanwhile, stick to the older and less efficient MJPEG codec.

I use CyberLink PowerDirector 8 and it handles the .mts and the .m2ts files perfectly. Editing these files is as easy as using the .mov , .mod or .avi files. You can download the trial application from the CyberLink web site to see for yourself.

Here I recommend you VLC Player and KMPlayer which are capable of playing AVCHD Lite files from your Panasonic Lumix Camera。
And Pavtube HD Video Converter, The Prog is very good and the only one which converts H264 MPEG 4 AVC video recordings in a correct and good quality way to Xvid!!
http://camcordervideoshare.com/how-to/c ... vi-format/